Reference: Off the beaten track, Bangkok Post, Febrary 29, 2008

According to the Bangkok Post (Off the beaten track, Bangkok Post, Febrary 29, 2008) "Thai motorists have lousy driving habits and lack discipline. They display poor etiquette and are absolutely selfish. To cope with these motorists one must develop special skills and be prepared for every driver on the road to commit a traffic infraction at any moment". To this rather unkind assessment I would like to add that they also display a tendency to indulge in thrilling daredevil maneuvers. Among other things, the country needs a public education program to encourage defensive driving and to discourage superstitious practices such as wearing special road safety amulets, hanging holy flowers on the rear view mirror, and worshiping road safety deities. These pseudo religious practices give the devotees a sense of invulnerability and embolden them to take chances.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Only in Thailand

There are things that are almost normal in Thailand but that could not have occurred anywhere else on earth. When the Minister of the Interior was informed that top officials in the administration were sexually harassing female workers and having sex with subordinates, he dismissed the allegations saying that it was not unusual for senior officials to keep mistresses (Ministry to probe sex claims, Bangkok Post, February 26, 2008). Across town, a defendant in a courtroom being tried for dealing in illicit drugs was secretly handed a package by a member of the audience seated behind him. It was a condom stuffed with illicit drugs (Drug delivery in court goes very wrong, Bangkok Post, February 26, 2008). As for the evil junta in Burma, the Foreign Minister has just announced a new Burma policy. It is to "talk with them in a friendly manner on subjects they are comfortable with" (New approach to Burma, Bangkok Post, February 26, 2008).

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Virgin flies first jumbo powered by biofuel, Bangkok Post, February 25, 2008

The war on fossil fuels is beginning to look more like a circus than a war (Virgin flies first jumbo powered by biofuel, Bangkok Post, February 25, 2008) except that in this case the clowns are dangerous because the growth of the palm oil plantations that they engineered is now considered by environmentalists themselves to be an environmental disaster (Asia's growing oil palm farms seen as climate change threat, Bangkok Post, November, 2007). The cure is worse than the disease. What's worse, the diagnosis is uncertain and probably wrong. Could a class action lawsuit against the global warming alarmists be far behind?

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Samak should apologise over Oct 6 says Suriyasai, Bangkok Post, February 22, 2008

He already has (Samak backs down from Oct 6 war of words, Bangkok Post, February 21, 2008) and he has agreed to all the demands made by Khun Thongbai Thongpao and others including that for the formation of a committee to set the historical record straight. The Prime Minister has never denied that he is just a street-wise buffoon who will never win brain games with the media or debates with brainy guys like Abhisit and the people elected him anyway. The Oct 6 issue is obscuring other more pressing matters including that of invisible hands in government. In the interest of transparency and accountability all invisible hands, whether they pull the strings of the Election Commission or those of he Prime Minister himself, must be made visible and accountable to the people.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Global Muslim fury following Mohammad cartoon reprint, Bangkok Post, February 16, 2008

The message in these cartoons for religious activists eager to behead those who insult Islam is that there are some who are equally eager to insult those who behead people as a way of settling disagreement. One would think that followers of any religion with enough faith in their beliefs, would be able to participate in a process of discourse and debate that does not involve murder.

In fact, those with unshakable faith would not need organized religion at all for their faith lies intact deep in their heart even if they are surrounded by non-believers. The function of organized religion is to provide strength in numbers to compensate for weakness in faith. The really weak may find that they must go beyond that and persecute non-believers to consolidate and defend their belief system and thereby to keep the faith. Intolerance is not a measure of the strength of faith but of its weakness.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: The inconvenient truth, Bangkok Post, February 12, 2008

Global warming scientists have used a computer climate model to predict that by the year 2030 yields of critical crops will fall sufficiently in southern Africa and in South Asia to cause famine (The inconvenient truth, Bangkok Post, February 12, 2008). The affected peoples of these regions may take some comfort in the fact that none of the prior predictions of global warming computer models has come to pass. The year 2007 was not the warmest year on record, the Australian drought did not turn out to be an unprecedented devastation, and the 2006 and 2007 Atlantic hurricane seasons were rather mild and not worse that the 2005 season. Also, many significant climate events did not appear in their forecast. Their model retains whatever credibility it still has only because time is on their side. Some of their predictions are so far in the future that they have yet to be proven wrong.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: The last march, Bangkok Post, February 11, 2008

The Antarctic Peninsula is a long spiny thread of mountains that stretches from Antarctica toward the southern tip of South America and constitutes less than 2% of the continent in land mass. The population of Adelie Penguins in the northern reaches of the Peninsula has declined in recent decades as noted in your article (The last march, Bangkok Post, February 11, 2008) but this decline has been more than offset by robust growth in other areas of Antarctica. Meanwhile other species of penguins are thriving in the Peninsula. The mix of penguin species in Antarctica has never been stable and has undergone dramatic changes over millennia. It is a gross misrepresentation of the data to imply that global warming caused by human activity is driving the Adelie penguins to extinction.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Rat invasion fuels famine fears, Bangkok Post, February 11, 2008

It is reported that thousands of people in a certain region of Bangladesh and across the border in India face starvation and famine because of a population explosion of field rats (Rat invasion fuels famine fears, Bangkok Post, February 11, 2008). The rats are eating food grains in the fields and in granaries. The concerned authorities may wish to send a delegation to Thailand to learn how to trap, cook, and eat rats. Fat grain-fed field rats are delicious and nutritious whether grilled or curried. In the short run it would solve the starvation problem and in the long run it would control the rat population.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: The scourge of fake medicine, Bangkok Post, February 9, 2008

A recent Bangkok Post editorial (The scourge of fake medicine, Bangkok Post, February 9, 2008) refers to sildanifel citrate pills made by firms other than Pfizer and marketed under names other than Viagra as "fake" and claims that they don't work as well as the Pfizer product because they contain less of the active ingredient than advertised. The statement may be true of the sample of pills in the Pfizer study cited in the editorial but an informal survey of old, feeble, and otherwise unable retirees in Cha-am appears to indicate that non-Pfizer 100 mg sildanifel citrate pills currently available at prices the feeble retirees can afford work just as well if not better than the Pfizer product. It is a scourge all right, but more of a scourge for Pfizer than for consumers in whose interest one presumes the editorial was written.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Vanishing homelands - new twist to sad tale, Bangkok Post, February 7, 2008

Atolls form if and only if a volcanic island with coral growth begins to sink by subduction and continues to sink until the island in the middle disappears completely leaving only a ring of coral. Atolls remain as long as the rate of coral growth exceeds or breaks even with the rate at which the submerged island is sinking. When it does not break even, the surface of the atoll begins to go under water. This phenomenon is a geological oddity and has nothing whatsoever to do with greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels or with global warming. It is a sad tale indeed for residents of sinking atolls but there is no new twist.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: A social reform agenda for the new government, Bangkok Post, January 30, 2008 and February 6, 2008

A two-part article in the Bangkok Post proposes a 12-point program for social reform in Thailand (A social reform agenda for the new government, Bangkok Post, January 30, 2008 and February 6, 2008) that includes the rule of law, autonomy for southern Muslims, community rights, media freedoms, democratic principles, no to FTA with the USA, tax reforms, guaranteed quality of life, empowerment of workers, citizenship for the stateless, a Burma policy, and military reform. The list is mostly a political agenda and there are glaring omissions with respect to much needed social reform.

Education through Mathayom 6 should be made free and compulsory and the education system should be overhauled to raise the quality of education to, say, Korean standards. We could make this overhaul a megaproject right up there with mega mass transit and irrigation systems being proposed by this government. The country also needs a comprehensive legal and social reform program to rid the society of an ancient, irrelevant, and reprehensible dowry system that denigrates women and makes marriage into a financial transaction in which the parents of the bride sell their daughter and the groom literally buys his wife. Dowries have been abolished by law in most of the civilized world even in places like Bangladesh. Last but not least, the country needs a social reform program to end the vicious cycle that starts with deadbeat dads and ends with abandoned and discarded single moms condemned to the trash heap of society from which concubinage and prostitution are often the only escape.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Samak must ensure good governance, Bangkok Post, February 5, 2008

No Prime Minister can ensure good governance. Good governance is an ideal and we can move toward that ideal only by virtue of the right kind of institutions and by the vigilance and activism of civil society and a free and vigorous press. It is up to the citizens to hold their government's feet to the fire and to hold them accountable. Democratic freedoms must be earned the hard way every day. Governments cannot give them to us any more than foxes can guard hens.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: US stimulus package unlikely to help much, Bangkok Post, February 4, 2008

The article quotes Professor Finn Erling Kydland, identified as a Nobel laureate, to make the case that the monetary policy of the US Federal Reserve Bank is unlikely to resolve the US financial crisis (US stimulus package unlikely to help much, Bangkok Post, February 4, 2008). A complex financial problem created by rising oil prices and mortgage defaults is thus further obfuscated by throwing ad hominem into the mix. Arguments made for or against an economic policy must stand on their own merit instead of appealing to Nobel prizes. After all, the last financial crisis in America was brought on by the mis-management of a hedge fund called Long Term Capital Management. It was managed by Nobel laureates.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Awaiting word from real man in charge, Bangkok Post, February 4, 2008

Much has been made of the notion that Thaksin is using Samak as a stooge to rule from exile (Awaiting word from real man in charge, Bangkok Post, February 4, 2008) and yet when the dust settles one may find that it was Samak who used Thaksin to get elected. Samak is nobody's stooge. Those who think that they have a puppet by the strings may find instead that they have a tiger by the tail.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: China's genocide Olympics, Bangkok Post, January 29, 2008

The circumstances in the attack by the Sudanese army on UN peace keepers in Darfur and in the murder of John Granville in Khartoum this month are not known and are subjects of investigations by the Sudanese government and the United Nations. It is premature and irresponsible journalism to presume guilt and to state that the Sudanese government had a hand in these events and by implication to smear the Chinese government and the Olympics (China's genocide Olympics, Bangkok Post, January 29, 2008). Also the claim that the soft power of subtle Chinese diplomacy does not work ignores its obvious success for it was deft Chinese diplomacy that made it possible for UN peace keepers to be deployed in Darfur. It is a theatre of the absurd for Americans to lecture the Chinese on the subject of failing to adequately address human rights issues when securing oil supplies. It takes hypocrisy to new heights.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Hypocrisy about sex damages society's health, Bangkok Post, January 9, 2007

Khun Jon Ungphakorn tells it like it is in the tradition of the great Howard Cossell and points out the contradictions between what Thais believe to be their traditional values and how they actually live their lives (Hypocrisy about sex damages society's health, Bangkok Post, January 9, 2007). His courage and sincerity are admirable but it must be said that whatever the reality on the ground may be, all societies need a moral compass just to define what it is that they aspire to. Traditional Thai values do serve that purpose in spite of the contradictions described in the article. In all the countries where I have lived I have always found that traditional values serve only as a reference and do not necessarily reflect reality. However, the problem of Thai men fathering and abandoning children is a serious one and requires urgent attention. The single moms are left to fend for themselves and even ostracized by a male dominated society as undesirable women with a "history". Many of them end up resorting to prostitution or concubinage just to raise the child. I know of no greater institutionalized social injustice.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Plants or animals begin to change or die, Bangkok Post, January 7, 2008

A global warming article in the Bangkok Post raises the alarm that climate change is causing mass extinctions of species and is expected to devastate the biodiversity of the planet (Plants or animals begin to change or die, Bangkok Post, January 7, 2008). I would like to remind the concerned individuals that there have been many epochs of climate change in earth's history and the data in the fossil record show that in every occurrence of climate change there has been, not a reduction, but indeed an explosion in the number of species. In fact, these data have caused biologists to revise Darwin's theory of evolution to include the idea that environmental stress causes biodiversity and that mutations occur in spurts when life is forced to adapt to changing circumstances. In any case, evolution is the way of Mother Nature and extinctions and mutations are part of that process. It is unlikely that She needs human beings to micromanage evolution for Her.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: The best hope is gone, Bangkok Post, January 6, 2008

There is no doubt that the assassination of Benazir Bhutto was a tragic event and that she deserves an eulogy but the one presented by Global Viewpoint (The best hope is gone, Bangkok Post, January 6, 2008) takes things a little too far all the way into the realm of fairy tales. The assumption that Al-Qaeda carried out the killing is premature and the conclusions drawn from that assumption including the comparison with Ahmed Shah Massoud and a heroic role for Ms Bhutto in the fight against Al-Qaeda are just plain silly. Pakistan still has whatever hope it had prior to the assassination of achieving democracy and containing Islamic extremism. Some hopes are probably gone or at least weakened and those would include the hope of unfreezing certain Swiss bank accounts and sealing forever certain pending court cases by way of political deals made with Musharraf. Other hopes are still as distant as ever and among them is the hope that the day will come when real democracy overcomes dynastic politics in South Asia and real issues rather than family soap operas sway the electorates there.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand

Reference: Monk molests girl 8, Bangkok Post, January 1, 2008

The news story about a Cambodian monk who molested a Western child (Monk molests girl 8, Bangkok Post, January 1, 2008) serves to illustrate that pedophilia is not a social evil that is imposed on innocent Cambodians by Western debauchery. There are plenty of Cambodian pedophiles. The child prostitution industry in Cambodia is an internal social problem with the supply side controlled entirely by Cambodians including parents who sell their daughters, poverty stricken jobless girls trying to make a living, and the powerful moneyed elite who control the lucrative trade. The demand side is more than 90% Cambodian and the rest consists mostly fellow Asians who share a natural proclivity for misogyny and prostitution as social institutions. There is also a superstitious mystique in Asia with respect to the health and spiritual value of having sex with a virgin and the younger the better, and it is this Asian weirdness that is responsible for the demand side in the market for child prostitution in Cambodia. Poverty provides a ready supply. Wester pedophiles did not invent the Cambodian child sex industry. They choose to go to Cambodia precisely because that industry already exists over there. Yet, international organizations, Cambodian NGOs, and the Western media continue to mis-represent this phenomenon as a social evil imposed on Cambodia by debauched Western pedophiles. The targeting of Western pedophiles particularly in high profile cases offers the illusion that something is being done and it brings in a lot of funding from Western donors to the concerned NGOs in Cambodia. It also provides additional leverage to a corrupt criminal justice system to extort money from rich Westerners. In a comical and ironical twist, parents who sold their daughter to Western pedophiles often demand and receive compensation in this extortive process. However, the targeting of Western pedophiles does nothing to solve the underlying problems of poverty, child prostitution, and the market for virgins in Cambodia. In fact it makes things worse for Cambodian children because the real underlying social problems are not addressed and because children at risk can now be used to entrap farangs for the purpose of extortion on a grand scale.

Cha-am Jamal
Thailand